The Toronto Blue Jays signed veteran pitcher Brad Penny to a minor league deal Thursday with an invitation to spring training, according to ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick. The team has not released the figures of the contract.
According to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca, the deal includes a player opt-out option at the end of spring training.
It looks as though Penny is continuing to attempt a comeback. The 37-year-old right-hander has pitched only 26.0 big league innings over the past three seasons. In fact, Penny was out of the majors in 2013 and 2015.
Penny attempted to crack the starting rotation of the Chicago White Sox during spring training in 2015 but did not make the team, spending the season in Triple-A. There, he posted a 4.46 ERA, 81 strikeouts and 33 walks in 135.1 innings, per NBC Sports' D.J. Short.
His last stint in the majors came in 2014, when he went 2-1 with a 6.58 ERA in four starts with the Miami Marlins. He has a career record of 121-101 with a 4.29 ERA and two All-Star appearances, including a 2006 season in which he led the National League with 16 wins.
Toronto has been going after pitchers throughout the offseason, having already re-signed Marco Estrada and acquired J.A. Happ. But the Blue Jays lost their ace when David Price, a trade-deadline acquisition in 2015, signed with the Boston Red Sox.
Toronto's pitching couldn't keep up with the team's potent offense last year, falling short in the American League Championship Series to the eventual world champion Kansas City Royals. Toronto's pitching allowed five runs or more in four of the six games in that series.
There's little risk in signing a veteran such as Penny to a minor league deal. If he is able to spin together a solid spring training, Toronto might keep him close by.
The Blue Jays already have a number of starters who will likely be appearing in the rotation next year with Estrada, Happ, Marcus Stroman, Jesse Chavez, R.A. Dickey and Drew Hutchison. But if anything were to happen to any these starters, Penny's experienced arm could prove to be useful at the end of the rotation.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.
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